10


Issue 2 2017 - Freight Business Journal Calais truck-on-train service restarts


The Calais-Le Boulou rail motorway service operated by French railways subsidiary VIIA resumed on 7 February after traffic was suspended last July following an upsurge in migrant activities in and around the French port. The service resumes with


one daily return service. Rail freight protection


security measures in Calais have been increased, in collaboration with the Port of Boulogne-Calais, SNCF Réseau and the French government. VIIA hopes to replicate


the success of its existing service between Bettembourg, Luxembourg, and Le Boulou which operated at 91% capacity in 2016, transporting 1.5 billion tonnes of freight. VIIA chairman, Thierry Le


Guilloux, commented: “We are happy that the service is


resuming, strengthening


the rail motorway network. The State’s commitment to improving access to the port of Calais has been essential, and clearly shows how important this new innovative mode of transport is. Our clients say


they are very interested in this service, which offers a direct link between Spain and the UK at 10-15% below the cost of road transport. Opening new


rail links from Calais is the first step to building a multimodal transport


corridor


News Roundup


The EU General Court has annulled the European Commission’s blocking of the proposed merger between UPS and TNT Express in 2013, saying that the decision was based on incorrect data. With TNT now in the hands of UPS’s rival, FedEx , it is seen largely as a hollow victory for UPS although it could theoretically allow UPS and TNT shareholders to claim damages.


Emirates SkyCargo has appointed current cargo manager for Northern England and Scotland, Ross Barnett, as UK cargo manager. Based in London, he will oversee cargo operations for 18 daily passenger flights and two Heathrow freighter services. Emirates says that December 2016 was the first month in which it exported more cargo from the UK than any other airline. Traffic was up 29% on the same month in 2015, to nearly 5,700 tonnes.


between


Southern and Northern Europe.”


Anglo-Irish team to push forwarding into the digital age


Irish and UK freight experts are pushing the boundaries of digital freight. A new team, including Dublin-based Simon Tobin, who has a background in the industry, and soſtware expert Thilo Rusche –


a developer with 19 years’


experience with mobile and web applications – together with an operations specialist have set up Optimise Logistics, which they say will help usher freight booking and brokering into the digital age. Headquartered in London, Optimise aims to tackle what is


sometimes called the Uberisation of truck transport by automating all the processes involved including order entry, allocation, tracking and paperwork through to payment. Tobin sees optimisation through


technology raising service levels and lowering costs. Linking the network brings better visibility, faster responses and auto alerting to shippers, he says. “We can make it easier for a carrier to get work, reduce their dead miles and increase utilisation. Reducing wasted miles is great for all parties


and positive for the environment.” In essence, he says, the platform


will do what freight forwarders have traditionally done - matching up shippers with available truck capacity, but in a more automated and less labour intensive way than traditional methods based on phone or email. He adds: “This isn’t a load board


or an auction site. We are the principal. We will generate the price – we’re absolutely not about driving the price down to the lowest quality of service.”


The system will bill the shipper


and pay the haulier, says Tobin, who adds that one of the attractions as far as the haulier is concerned is that they will get paid within a few days rather than the current norm of a month-plus. He is also convinced that online


truck booking will be an essential adjunct to developments such as driverless trucks. It would be perverse if all the trucks in future were driven by robots but booking loads onto them was still a pen and paper process, he argued.


We will survive onslaught of the apps, says freight forwarding chief


Clever online apps will not kill the freight forwarding star, predicts BIFA. The industry will survive online retailers launching their own brokerage services because of “the vastly challenging and circuitous landscape” that the industry operates in, it predicts. The British International


Freight Association (BIFA) was reacting to current speculation that Amazon and Uber may be about to launch their own global freight brokerage businesses. The trade association for UK


freight forwarders noted that while Amazon is yet to confirm its plans, Uber has already soſt- launched Uber Freight, and according to Business


Insider


UK, the San Francisco based company, has ambitions to cut out freight intermediaries by introducing load matching apps which would provide real-time pricing. Smaller start-ups such as Cargomatic, Convoy and CargoX also have the same idea. Amazon recently unveiled plans to build a worldwide


services hub in the US Mid-west, and has also acquired thousands of its own trucks, which some say sends a firm signal of its ambition to take on brokers and forwarders. But BIFA director general,


Robert Keen, believes that his members have nothing to fear, pointing out: “I have been working in the industry for over 40 years and have watched the naysayers and doom mongers in the media, and the wider industry, predict the demise of forwarders and brokers, only for


It’s springtime for Liverpool as Paris calls


The Port of Liverpool handled its largest ever containership at its new deepwater terminal on 6 March. Liverpool2 played host to MSC’s 6,552teu HS Paris, which is the first post-Panamax vessel to call since opening of phase 1 of the new


them to have been proven wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. We have more forwarders now than ever before.” He says that freight industry


supply chains are highly complex and multi-layered. “I find it hard to believe that there is an algorithm out there which can successfully absorb, understand and counter all the challenges that our members face on a daily basis. How, for example, does an app react to freak weather and negotiate customs issues?”


terminal last November. Chief executive of Peel Ports


Group, Mark Whitworth, said: “This is a huge milestone for Peel Ports and the Port of Liverpool. While we have the capacity to handle vessels up to 20,000 TEU, smaller post- Panamax ships are still very much part of our overall strategy.”


Luzius Wirth is to succeed as chief executive for UK and Ireland at handler Swissport from 1 June. He takes over from Tommy Watt, who is taking early retirement. Wirth will retain his role as executive vice president group services.


IAG Cargo has appointed Lewis Girdwood as chief financial officer. He joins the business from EasyJet, where he was head of financial planning and analysis.


Transport secretary Chris Grayling opened express carrier DHL’s new Southern hub, on the western edge of Heathrow Airport on 3 March. The 150,000sq ft facility forms part of an investment plan first announced in 2014, and is now home to over 750 employees.


Saudia is to operate twice weekly 787 Dreamliner passenger and cargo flights between Manchester and Riyadh from June on Monday and Wednesday. It already operates five times a week from Manchester to Jeddah.


IAG Cargo reported a 6.6% fall in commercial revenue to €1,022m in the year to December 31 – but adjusting the figures to reflect a directly comparable operation, it fell 8% versus last year. Chief executive Drew Crawley said these were resilient results in the face of challenging market conditions. Growing supply from freighter and new generation passenger fleets have continued to outstrip flat demand for general freight.


FedEx Express’s new 35,000sq m Southern Europe gateway at Milan-Malpensa airport is now fully operational. Advanced technology boosts package sorting capacity by 25% in a country where the number of people making online purchases has doubled over the last five years and are forecast to increase by 17% in 2016.


FedEx’s Supply Chain arm has launched FedEx Fulfilment, an e-commerce solution for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps them fulfil orders from multiple channels including websites and online marketplaces and manage inventory for their retail stores through an easy-to-use platform and FedEx’s transportation networks. FedEx says customers get complete visibility into their products, allowing them to track items, manage inventory, analyse trends, and make more informed decisions by better understanding shoppers’ spending behaviours.


Airship developer HAV says that it hopes that its Airlander 10 airship, damaged after nosediving during its second test flight in August last year, will fly again during 2017. HAV hopes to develop the Airlander – the world’s longest aircraft - originally conceived by the US military, for a number of uses, including cargo transport. The flight deck is now back in place after repairs and testing has begun inside a hangar at HAV’s Bedfordshire base, following which test flights can resume.


///NEWS Air


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48